Le Top des Pops

Two decades ago French pop music was something of a laughing stock (outside France that is), but now it seems that Lounge Lizards the world over just can’t get enough. Muriel Zagha finds out how it happened.

When asked about French pop music, many outside France react with incredulity and scorn. There is no such thing as French pop, they argue, because although the French, from Edith Piaf to Georges Brassens or Charles Trénet, are the undisputed masters of poetic chanson, they are incapable of producing anything even remotely cool. I grew up in France and I used to agree: when I was a teenager, Johnny Rotten meant more to me than Johnny Halliday and I even made a point of moving to Britain, away from the embarrassment that was French pop music.

Others admit there might be such a thing as French pop music, but that it is 100% awful. Obviously, one basic problem for non- French listeners is 'le sound barrier’. French pop has an irritating tendency to be in French. This understandably brings about traumatic flashbacks of nursery rhymes and school. Remember Frère Jacques?

And then there was France’s own sound barrier. The Académie Française works hard to keep English words out of the French language. The French government has stepped in to protect French music from “anglosaxonitis”, providing subsidies and distribution for French acts and even introducing quotas to ensure 40% of French music is played on the radio waves.

Since the 1950s, France has managed to contain the invasion of British and American stars by producing its own version Française of the real thing. It is still going strong in the leather-clad person of 60-something rocker Johnny Halliday, the “French Elvis”. Johnny, who sells millions of albums to French fans who don’t understand a word of English, started his career in the 1960s, as part of a group of young French pop idols known as “les yéyés” – so-called because they imitated the rebel yell “yeah, yeah” in their own language.

But now, in spite of all such obstacles to a musical entente cordiale, French pop has suddenly arrived on the international music scene. Bands like Air and Daft Punk and superstar DJs such as Laurent Garnier have all been dubbed representatives of a new and übercool “French touch”, a beguiling mix of easy listening and electro-pop which is played in lounge bars all over the world. They don’t sound particularly French. But then, what better way to break through the sound barrier than to sing in English or, even better, not to sing at all?

This is only the latest instalment in the saga of French pop, a story of how the French have successfully retained their cultural identity while absorbing outside influences to produce home-grown versions of le rock, le rap, or la techno.

Not all French pop stars were as Gallic-bound as Johnny Halliday. In the 1960s, talented singer and songwriter Françoise Hardy was the first French pop act to be well-received abroad. Her limpid, melancholy love songs sounded very modern after a diet of Edith Piaf. Mick Jagger called Hardy “the ideal woman” and Bob Dylan wrote poems under her spell. Now one of the greatest French pop icons, Hardy likes to record duets with such unexpected luminaries as Iggy Pop or Damon Albarn.

In 1968, another French pop act even reached No.1 in the UK charts… with a bang. The heavy-breathing duet Je t’Aime, Moi Non Plus (I Love You – Me Neither) by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin may have been banned by the BBC, but it was generally regarded as a bit of a joke in Britain. In France, however, Gainsbourg is revered as a great innovative musical talent and as a poet on a par with Rimbaud and Apollinaire. He is also beloved for his provocations and all-round political incorrectness – propositioning Whitney Houston on live TV, singing a duet entitled Lemon Incest with his daughter Charlotte, and producing a reggae version of La Marseillaise, much to the outrage of the French army.

But the most unexpected success story of French pop music was perhaps the birth of French hip-hop in the 1990s. The emphasis on declamation and word-play in rap music proved a brilliant match for the talent of French lyricists.

Leading stars include MC Solaar, the Marseille-based band IAM and the aptly-named Toulouse band The Fabulous Trobadours. Remarkably, French rap, rather than be content with a pale imitation of American gansta rap, has created its own musical genre, with thoughtful and often poetic lyrics that reflect the multi-cultural reality of post-colonial France, where immigration and urbanisation had brought about a rich ethnic mix in the big cities. Paris is also a major centre for world music.

The key word here is métissage, the interweaving of different cross- cultural threads. The ability to appropriate and adapt foreign musical styles has always been a strong point of French pop culture. It also explains how Jane Birkin was claimed by the French, becoming, perhaps surprisingly for the archetypal Chelsea Girl, a French icon. Her new album Arabesque, where Gainsbourg songs are reinterpreted with North-African orchestrations, is a masterpiece of métissage.

BANDS LIKE AIR AND DAFT PUNK AND SUPERSTAR DJS SUCH AS LAURENT GARNIER HAVE ALL BEEN DUBBED REPRESENTATIVES OF A NEW AND UBERCOOL 'FRENCH TOUCH’, A BEGUILING MIX OF EASY LISTENING AND ELECTRO-POP WHICH IS PLAYED IN LOUNGE BARS ALL OVER THE WORLD

There are many other original delights to be sampled in French pop, like eccentric acid-rocker Jacques Dutronc (imagine all the Rolling Stones rolled into one Frenchman), bottom-baring glam- rock star Michel Polnareff or the kitsch-punk attitude and Latin- influenced groove of Les Rita Mitsouko.

Think of it in terms of food. Their first taste of garlic and olive oil came as a bit of a shock to the post-war generation, but now Britain can’t get enough of chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, and smelly cheeses are no longer treated with suspicion.

So next time you’re cruising down the aisles of a French hypermarché, why not add a couple of French pop CDs to your food selection? You like traditional charcuterie? Johnny Halliday is for you. Or perhaps you prefer suggestive oysters or asparagus? Go for Gainsbourg. If you are after timeless classics, pick up a bottle of champagne and some Françoise Hardy. One taste and you will be hooked. It’ll make the soundtrack to your life a little more French-tastic. And who knows, you might even learn a bit of French.

French pop for beginners
Françoise Hardy – Messages Personnels (Virgin)
Serge Gainsbourg – Ballade de Melody Nelson (Universal)
Les Rita Mitsouko – La Femme Trombone (Virgin)
MC Solaar Prose – Combat (Polydor)
Air – Moon Safari (Source)